Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Much more clarity needs to be brought as to where the responsibility lies so that we can avoid a situation where invoices are being sent to the home of someone who is non-verbal, aged in their 40s and does not have the means. Parents become distraught in thinking they have to somehow find this money they do not have.

I commend LocalLink because it is a key to this issue but it does not have the resources. The Minister of State said it has a small amount of resources. Much greater resources must be given by the HSE to LocalLink to take up the possibility, because its staff know a lot of the people involved. That is one option. This is also relevant to ambulance services. Ambulances come from Galway to north Mayo to bring a patient to Castlebar. That is a waste of people's money. I ask the Minister of State to sit down and work this out with the other Ministers so that something like this does not happen again and people in rural areas have transport to get to services.

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